Help, my puppy wont stop chewing plants

I have a 14 week old male bull/neo mastiff. His training is going well, he only rarely has accidents in the house (usually in the morning right after he eats and im in the shower), he's learned a few different tricks (knows the difference between left and right paw, gives hi-fives, talks on commands, rolls over, sits, lays, drops things when told to) and loves to play.

The only real problem I am having with him right now that I can't seem to get under control is his obsession with the 9 foot talk palm tree's in the back yard. When we are playing in the back yard and he's all rilled up, he starts biting the lower hanging branches of the palm tree's. He also tries to strip the bark off the tree's. He loves the taste of plants for some reason.

I have tried a couple different things to try and stop him from ripping these plants apart. I've tried spraying the area's of the tree that he can reach, with "Bitter Apple" a couple times a day (usually anything with that stuff on it, he wont even touch), I've tried to distract him from the tree's while playing, by trying to play as far from the tree's as possible, and when it comes down to it - I have to physically move him away from the tree's and tell him that it's not okay to do that. Usually when I go to physically move him from the tree's, he'll either lay down, or he'll run from that tree to another tree, trying to get me to chase him. When he does that, I turn around and cross my arms and ignore him, but it doesn't help, he just goes at the tree's even more when ignored.

Is there anything anyone can suggest to help break him of this habbit? We rent the house we are in, so I don't want him destroying their tree's, lol.

I'd place a temp fencing around it . As far as the morning poop .... it's food in ...poop out . Change your shower time . I loved my morning showers until I had kids .....then it was bedtime showers . You can still wash hair and re-wet in the morning at sink .

Do you play tug with him? If not, you might want to try to start doing that. Tug is good for many different reasons (do a search for tug if you want more details, there are several threads about it), but in this case I think it will be a nice outlet for him. You can also use tug to redirect his behavior - when he starts tearing the bark off the tree, pull out his favorite tug toy and make it really fun for him to tug on that instead of the tree.

One of my dogs destroys all bushes, plants, etc. This is why I don't have any in my yard. I would say the temporary fencing would be a good idea since you're renting.

Yes, I do play tug with him, I have a rope that he loves to play with. It's usually when I am out in the backyard playing tug with him that he tries to go after the tree's. He'll get the rope from me, and run around the yard with it in his mouth, and on his way back over to me he gets distracted by the tree's. He know's he's not allowed to chew on the tree's, because he'll keep the rope in his mouth when he goes to try and bite the tree's. Like that's going to make it okay? lol.

My idea is pretty similar to lizzy's...I suggest getting a few toys for him that he will like to keep him busy. My dog used to bite A LOT as a puppy, especially when he was still in his litter. You have to just keep using positive reinforcement and keep him occupied with other things, such as his toys. When he's doing it, pay no attention to the behavior and try to distract him using toys. When he does something good, reward him.

In that case, I'd suggest not letting him take the rope from you, or if he does, have a second rope handy that you can use to get his attention away from the tree. The purpose of the tug here is to let your puppy focus his energy on you, not on another object.... So if you drop the tug, now you've got to get his focus back off of two distractions.

IMO, it's ok to let dogs "win" tug, by the way. But it does depend on the dog and on the situation. My dog had to learn to play tug, so I let her win a lot in the beginning to reward the tugging. But in your case, outside with the trees, I don't think it's the right time to let him "win."

How do you correct him when he does this. You may want to try that sour apple stuff it works like a charm.